Kantianism

This essay aims to present a formulation of the categorical Imperative called the Humanity Formulation and deem it as a sufficient and plausible condition in determining moral worth. As a deontologist, Immanuel Kant believes that an action's moral worth is determined by the motive rather than the consequences it leads to and the focus of our moral actions should be on duty. This idea, called the categorical imperative, was a central and supreme concept of morality in Kantian ethics. The…

Kant is a philosopher that precedes Plato. His moral ideology is that of a social contract, He brings forth that natural law and mill, utilitarianism, is asserted. Kant has two versions of a categorical imperative. He sees this as a supreme principle of morality which embodies and compares to the bottom up ethics. This is rooted not in human happiness but in the human will/reason that is also referred to as the state of mind. He evolves into cases that illustrate the two categorical…

Immanuel Kant was a German Philosopher who came up with his own version of ethics, referred to as Kantian Ethics. Kant believed that the immoral part of someone’s actions lied within that person’s intentions. This is different from Utilitarianism where Jeremy Bentham believed that the morality of someone’s actions lied in their effects. Kant saw the limits of the two questions “What if everyone did that?” and “How would you like it I did that to you?” as a test for moral rightness. Kant said…

1. Immanuel Kant, in his Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals attempts to construct a moral philosophical system built upon reason and rationality. In this paper I will explain how Kant frames this rational morality, what he means by the invocation of the categorical imperative, duty, and the moral law (note that henceforth all important conceptual terms will be capitalized for clarity). I intend to make the case that Kant’s moral philosophy, while not without flaws, largely succeeds in…

In Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Immanuel Kant discusses laws of nature and freedom and acting with reason versus impulse, with the implication of free will. This explication will discuss the qualifications of reason and being rational, acting in conformity of the law or with the representation of the law, and giving oneself a law with free will. These premises set by Kant lead him to conclude that only rational beings have the ability to act “in accordance with the representation of…

Hegel who is a German philosopher and an important figure of German idealism believes that consciousness of objects mention some awareness of self, as a subject, which is isolated from the recognized object. But Hegel argue that subjects are also objects when we look at the other subjects. In ‘the Phenomology of Spirit’, he tries to point out that self-consciousness is the awareness of another individual’s understanding of oneself. One of the most important pieces he wrote is called the…

Within this paper, I will argue that the decision that Jean Valjean decided on, stealing the loaf of bread for his nieces and nephews, was morally wrong. There are many reasons that I believe he was morally wrong and unjust. According to the theories of Immanuel Kant, Jean Valjean has been shown to have made a morally wrong decision. I agree with Kant and I believe this for many reasons, including his moral actions, the categorical imperative, his types of duties, the autonomy of the will, also…

In the articles “Brittany Maynard, as promised, ends her life at 29” and “Brittany Maynard explains reasons for ending her life in her own words”, Brittany Maynard decides to end her own life during the end stages of her terminal brain cancer. In this essay, I will describe Maynard’s reasons for her decision to take her own life. I will show how Kant would argue that Maynard’s decision was morally impermissible by using the two formulations of the Categorical Imperative, and how Aristotle would…

In this paper I am going to compare and contrast the writings and ideas of Immanuel Kant and Thomas Hobbes. Both Kant and Hobbes speak on the subject of obedience to those who hold the power in society. While Kant ([1798] 1996) in his writing, “What is Enlightenment?” discusses how you may argue with those in authority as long as you obey, Hobbes ([1651] 2013) in his book “Leviathan” talks about how we cannot argue with the Sovereign because his will is our will and to argue with him is to argue…

Deontology Analysis Stemming from the Greek root word “deontos” meaning obligation or duty, deontology is an ethical theory which is used to judge the morality of an action itself rather than the consequences of an action as in the theory of consequentialism. Those who favor deontology believe that consequentialism can be unrealistic, too demanding, and sometimes condone immoral acts to achieve an ethical end. Consequentialism imposes that we must act in accordance to the extent that brings…